Aboard a train heading out of Minneapolis toward frontier North Dakota, Era Bell Thompson in her autobiography "American Daughter" (1946) describes a landscape that grows steadily bleaker with each mile farther west: "Suddenly there was snow--miles and miles of dull, white snow, stretching out to meet the heavy, gray sky; deep banks…

Responses to the School Factors Questionnaire (SFQ) administered to 222 students were used to ascertain student perceptions of alienating factors within secondary school environments. Descriptive statistics (i.e., frequency of responses to SFQ items) were used to report the data. The results indicated that although secondary students liked coming…

This document reports on a project to identify and analyze the desire for professional collegiality and concerns about increasing alienation among members of the Queensland Institute for Educational Administration (QIEA). From a 3-phase workshop involving over 500 participants, 7 major issues were identified: (1) complexity of teaching and…

Few schools provide an equitable environment for female and minority students. This paper examined the culture of a high school as it was perceived and experienced by female, at-risk students in grades 9-12. Interviews were conducted with 11 female at-risk students at a high school in the greater New York metropolitan area, their parents,…

Project PATHE (Positive Action Through Holistic Education) was a 3-year delinquency prevention program implemented in seven schools by the Charleston County, Maryland public school system between 1980 and 1983. An evaluation of the PATHE program was conducted which compared PATHE schools to two non-PATHE schools. Year-to-year differences in the…

This report is the result of taped interviews with 115 Alaskan teenage women who have dropped out of "regular" public school. Two results of the study stand out: first, the majority of the students wanted a diploma, but nonetheless felt compelled to drop out; second (the reason most girls gave for dropping out): no one cared. However,…

This study surveyed student views of their schools and attempted to determine the degree of student alienation in Western Australian high schools. One hundred students from each of twelve high schools participated in the study. Data were gathered from a questionnaire and follow-up interviews. Findings indicated that a majority of students felt a…

This report reviews the research on school and classroom environments, discusses the implications of such research for the design and evaluation of secondary school programs, and provides an annotated bibliography of the relevant literature. Topics discussed in the review include: (1) the semantics of school environment research; (2) the…

This guide is intended as a resource for educators who wish to use films on aging to teach humanistic values. There are three main divisions in the guide: (1) descriptive and analytical notes on 12 films about aging, (2) suggestions for instructional programming, and (3) an annotated filmography. The first section includes film-study questions on…

Research was done to determine the degree of acceptance of others exhibited by two groups of randomly selected preservice teachers in order to determine whether special workshop and field experience training modified their attitudes towards others' patterns of behavior and beliefs. The study was set within the context of a muti-ethnic neighborhood…

A STUDY WAS MADE IN 18 ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY DELAWARE SCHOOLS TO INVESTIGATE THE SEPARATE AND INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF ROLES, ORGANIZATIONS, AND PERSONALITIES ON THE ALIENATION OF TEACHERS. PERSONALITY WAS DESIGNATED AS ABSTRACT AND CONCRETE. ROLES WERE DESIGNATED AS AUTHORITARIAN-RITUALISTIC, INSTRUMENTAL, RITUALISTIC-GRATIFICATORY, AND…

Using data collected through interviews with headmasters, other administrative personnel, teachers, and pupils from a random stratified sample of 33 comprehensive schools in England and Wales, a study was conducted of the use of the house system, with schools classified into four types: using the house system extensively, 11; using it moderately,…

One of 52 theoretical papers on school crime and its relation to poverty, this chapter is an attempt to adopt a social network model to describe linkages between the school and socialization organizations within a community, and, from this view of the social structure, to develop strategies that will promote more arrangements that are better able…

The present study represents an attempt to further delineate the sociological and psychological variables that predispose a student to become an activist of the "new left." A total of 103 students participated in the study, 48 experimental and 55 control subjects. Measures used included a self report, an activism index, a Vietnam opinion Survey,…

An attitudinal survey of students enrolled in second language programs in Virginia public schools is reported in this article. Discussion of the results indicates several areas in which language teachers could work toward the improvement of student attitudes and motivation. A principal reason for not continuing with a language program is noted to…